Thread: American coup in Venezuela

Do you hear helicopters?

I think the US should send some "virtual" humanitarian relief. You know ... some imaginary food, some hypothetical baby formula, a couple boatloads of pretend power generators, and a few planeloads full of best wishes.

That'll do it.

Originally Posted by Texpat

You know ... some imaginary food, some hypothetical baby formula, a couple boatloads of pretend power generators, and a few planeloads full of best wishes.

That'll do it.

It; as we see in so many "announcements", from ameristani "leaders", of all descriptions. Nothing will ever get delivered.

The sea-born route is closed, the overland route closed. Possibly teleporting is now available to ameristan from their "Space Force", ah but they don't have rockets able to lift and deploy anything other than nuclear bombs.

Such planning and execution will be a standard week long subject in military schools of the future. How to promise the world and deliver zero.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Chavismo attempts to stop protests....

Sky News the voice of truth, eh

I'll take your word that the long shot of the "protesters" were not long shots of the "supporters". The film is yesterdays not last years .... Sky News has previous on such "errors"

I do notice that where the ageing SN reporter is visible, all the shots are low level and no long shots, to assist us to judge his assertions or was he hiding the truth?

A lack of anything, the water cannon, snatch squads, coach loads participants being held on highways outside the cities, of tear gas, live rounds ....... actually being used. As per France and the UK whenever they have "crowds" to manage.

Originally Posted by SKkin

We've been informed by the thread "expert" that de Zayas is a "twat."

With supporting evidence which you've chosen not to post.

Speaking of which...

Not seeing much starvation going on in that pic harry...

You didn't see them before.....


Added: From a year ago; I'm guessing the 3 million that have fled the country were in the 60%.

The annual survey, published on Wednesday by three universities, is one of the most closely-followed assessments of Venezuelans’ well being amid a government information vacuum and shows a steady rise in poverty and hunger in recent years.

Over 60 percent of Venezuelans surveyed said that during the previous three months they had woken up hungry because they did not have enough money to buy food. About a quarter of the population was eating two or less meals a day, the study showed.


Last year, the three universities found that Venezuelans said they had lost an average of 8 kilograms during 2016. This time, the study’s dozen investigators surveyed 6,168 Venezuelans between the ages of 20 and 65 across the country of 30 million people.

After winning the presidency in 1999, leftist President Hugo Chavez was proud of improving Venezuela’s social indicators due to oil-fueled welfare policies. But his successor President Nicolas Maduro’s rule since 2013 has coincided with a deep recession, due to failed state-led economic policies and the plunge in global oil prices.

Wednesday’s study flagged Venezuelans’ deteriorating diets, which are deficient in vitamins and protein, as currency controls restrict food imports, hyperinflation eats into salaries, and people line up for hours to buy basics like flour.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-v...-idUSKCN1G52HA

Venezuela - Three Total Blackouts In Three Days - Government Presumes U.S. Cyberattack


https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/03/venezuela-three-total-blackouts-in-three-days-government-presumes-us-cyberattack.html#comments

Some of the post:

"It is quite possible or even likely that the U.S. is causing these incidents. But it is not certain."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northe...ackout_of_2003


"When the northeast blackout happened no one blamed President Bush or socialism for the outage."


https://www.dw.com/en/venezuela-us-indicts-top-regime-official-tareck-el-aissami/a-47832662


"When the first outage happened U.S. Senator Marco Rubio eagerly mocked the government of Venezuela. He also mentioned that some backup generators failed:

Marco Rubio @marcorubio - 22:18 utc - 7 Mar 2019
ALERT: Reports of a complete power outage all across #Venezuela at this moment.
18 of 23 states & the capital district are currently facing complete blackouts.
Main airport also without power & backup generators have failed.
#MaduroRegime is a complete disaster.

After the first outage the government of Venezuela said that it was caused by a cyberattack on the automated control system but gave no further details:

Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said Maduro's government planned to bring "proof" of US involvement in the blackout to a UN Human Rights envoy who is set to visit the country in the coming days.

Rodriguez pointed to the Rubio tweet:

'How did Marco Rubio know that backup generators had failed? At that time, no one knew that,' the Bolivarian government official asked."


"The U.S. is well know for cyberattacks as well as for attacks on electricity networks

In preparation for the 1973 coup against Allende in Chile the U.S. also caused blackouts. Back then the New York Times reported:

SANTIAGO, Chile, Aug. 13 — A power cut brought a total blackout here as President Salvador Allende Gossens was in the middle of a nationwide address on the country's political crisis.
...
The electricity went off at 10:15 P.M., 35 minutes after President Allende had begun to speak, citing long list of recent acts of terrorism and sabotage that he attributed to “fascist opposition.” He went back on the air, The Associated Press reported, as power was beginning to be restored in some areas, and said that the blackout could have been either “a technically explicable failure or a fascist attack.” The news agency said that unidentified saboteurs blew up an electric‐power transmission line outside the city, attributing the information to Fernando Figueroa, general manager of the state power system.


It wasn't just the "fascist opposition" but the CIA behind it that caused the chaos:

As described in the Church Committee report, the CIA was involved in multiple plots designed to remove Allende .. [...] [T]he CIA, with the approval of the 40 Committee, attempted to bribe the Chilean legislature, tried to influence public opinion against Allende, and provided funding to strikes designed to coerce him into resigning. [...] In addition, the CIA gave extensive support for black propaganda against Allende, channeled mostly through El Mercurio. Financial assistance was also given to Allende's political opponents, and for organizing strikes and unrest to destabilize the government."


"Attacks on electricity networks affect the civilian population. Hospitals are hard to run without electricity. Lives are endangered. Both , the Obama and the Trump administration, rejected international attempts to ban cyberattacks that "indiscriminate or systemic harm to individuals and critical infrastructure":

All members of the European Union signed the agreement. Australia and Turkey joined the United States in declining.
...
Israel, which along with the United States conducted the most sophisticated cyberattack in history, the Stuxnet attack on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, also declined to sign."

"The U.S. also rejected an agreement that would ban cyber manipulation of elections. The given reasons are of interest:

[T]he United States has interfered in foreign elections before, including Italy in the 1940s and Iran and Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s, and some officials say that no American president should be forced to give up that tool if it could prevent a war. Similarly, the Pentagon worries about commitments to avoid using cyberattacks as a prelude to military action. The United States had a secret program, code-named “Nitro Zeus,” which called for turning off the power grid in much of Iran if the two countries had found themselves in a conflict over Iran’s nuclear program. Such a use of cyberweapons is now "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitro_Zeus

One hopes all the incubator babies, anyone being operated on or people on blood cleaning systems have survived.

346. Paper Prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency for the Standing Group of the National Security Council


Proposed Covert Policy and Integrated Program of Action towards CubaI. Introduction

1. Submitted herewith is a covert program for Cuba within CIA's capabilities. Some parts of the program have already been approved and are being implemented. Being closely inter-related, the total cumulative impact of the courses of action set forth in this program is dependent upon the simultaneous coordinated execution of the individual courses of action.

2. This program is based on the assumption that current U.S. policy does not contemplate outright military intervention in Cuba or a provocation which can be used as a pretext for an invasion of Cuba by United States military forces. It is further assumed that U.S. policy calls for the exertion of maximum pressure by all means available to the U.S. Government, short of military intervention, to prevent the pacification of the population and the consolidation of the Castro/Communist regime. The ultimate objective of this policy would be to encourage dissident elements in the military and other power centers of the regime to bring about the eventual liquidation of the Castro/Communist entourage and the elimination of the Soviet presence from Cuba

4. Within the context of the policy assumptions and estimate of the situation in Cuba outlined above, CIA submits a program consisting of the following interdependent courses of action: [Page 830]

A. Covert collection of intelligence, both for U.S. strategic requirements as well as for operational requirements.
B. Propaganda actions to stimulate low-risk simple sabotage and other forms of active and passive resistance.
C. Exploitation and stimulation of disaffection in the Cuban military and other power centers.
D. Economic denial actions on an increased basis.
E. General sabotage and harassment.
F. Support of autonomous anti-Castro Cuban groups to supplement and assist in the execution of the above courses of action.

Covert propaganda actions are designed to produce a psychological climate in Cuba conducive to the accomplishment of the other courses of action in the integrated covert program. Only after the effects of economic denial and sabotage actions are deeply felt by the populace and the elite groups can one hope to convert disaffection in the armed forces and other power centers of the regime into militant revolt against the Castro/Communist entourage. It is also at this point where CIA-controlled and autonomous activist elements in the Cuban exile community can begin to assume genuine resistance proportions

B. Propaganda actions to stimulate low-risk simple sabotage and other forms of active and passive resistance.

C. Exploitation and stimulation of disaffection in the Cuban military and other power centers.

We are undertaking an intensive probing effort to identify, seek out and establish channels of communication with disaffected and potentially dissident non-Communist elements in the power centers of the regime, particularly in the armed forces hierarchy. The objective is to promote the fragmentation of the regime and possibly lead to an internal coup which would dislodge Castro and his entourage, and make it possible to eliminate the Cuban Communists from positions of power and force the withdrawal of the Soviet military presence and the termination of its economic aid. Several promising operations are already underway

D. Economic denial actions.

Overt official U.S. economic sanctions in conjunction with covert economic denial operations (such as denial of [less than 1 line of source text not declassified]) is causing a marked adverse effect on the Cuban economy. For maximum impact on the Cuban economy this effort must be coordinated with sabotage operations

It must be recognized that no single act of sabotage by itself can materially affect the economy or stimulate significant resistance. However, it is our opinion that a well-planned series of sabotage efforts, properly executed, would in time produce the effect we seek. Each action will have its dangers: there will be failures with consequent loss of life and charges of attribution to the United States resulting in criticism at home and abroad. None of these expected consequences should cause us to change our course if the program as outlined can be expected to be successful.

Annex A is an elaboration of a proposed sabotage and harassment program against Cuba.

Annex A

SUBJECT

Sabotage/Harassment Program

The broad target categories against which the sabotage/harassment operations would be mounted and a preliminary evaluation of their effect, can be summarized as follows:

A. Electric Power

Disruption of any of the existing power grids which might be effected by damage to or destruction of the generating facilities or of the critical sub-stations in the distribution network, would significantly weaken the existing economic and social structure, particularly in view of the fact that in many areas the power now available is not adequate to meet the demands of industrial and public consumers. Smaller acts of [Page 833]sabotage/harassment by the populace such as throwing chains over high tension lines to short them out, would also exacerbate the current power shortage, and the cumulative effect of all such actions could cause a prolonged breakdown of the power system as there is already a shortage of spare parts and replacement materiels.

B. Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants (POL)

Damage to or destruction of POL production and/or storage facilities would seriously affect almost all aspects of the Cuban economy. The electric power industry depends almost entirely upon POL as fuel for the generating plants and the sugar industry depends upon POL powered processing and transportation facilities as does all intra-province transportation. Production and storage facilities are susceptible to external attacks by heavy weapons or by more subtle methods if internal assets having an appropriate degree of accessibility can be developed. The loss of refining facilities could be offset by increased Bloc shipments of refined products but such a shift would require a period of readjustment during which there would be a heavy strain on the Cuban economy. An additional burden on the Bloc refining capacity would also exist until Cuba's refining capacity is restored."

Complete document can be read here:

https://history.state.gov/historical...961-63v11/d346

Substitute Venezuela and it's the same failed play-book.

Cuba held out, as Venezuela is, currently and has done for a number of years.